Trump’s China Policy Has a Flaw: It Makes China the Winner<br />Several Chinese initiatives — its One Belt, One Road effort to build infrastructure to connect to Central Asia, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership it hopes to negotiate with its Asian neighbors,<br />and its Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank — are aimed at building an institutional framework to rival the trade agreements and multinational financial institutions supported by the West.<br />President Trump’s announcement last week that the United States would impose a battery of tariffs against as much as $60 billion worth of Chinese<br />goods while restricting Chinese investments in American technology companies has set policy onto a different, more belligerent path.<br />As a counterweight, Washington could strengthen the global institutions<br />that support its own view of fair play, like the World Trade Organization, which the United States took such trouble to build.<br />Mr. Trump’s willingness to slap real punitive tariffs on Chinese goods, regardless of the collateral damage<br />they may cause on the American economy, gives Washington some leverage in its face-off with Beijing.<br />While Professor Mearsheimer argues that the United States should aim to contain China by preventing it from expanding its influence or conquering territory in Asia<br />and by building alliances to hem in Chinese power, Robert J.<br />Mr. Trump could even get China to offer more market access for agricultural products and other valuable American exports.
